Hospital beds are provided with a number of convenience and safety features including, for example, side barriers for retaining a patient safely in the bed and castors for allowing care staff to move the patient while in the bed. There are typically provided one or more brakes for locking the castors and thus the bed in position. It is generally convenient to have the side barriers and brakes manually operable, for instance for patient and care worker convenience as well as to avoid the need to have a power supply available for operation of these particular features. Manual operation can, however, lead to operator error and uncertainty as to whether these safety devices have been properly set in their safe configurations.